Using Weblogs in Foreign Language Classrooms: Possibilities and Challenges

           Using Weblogs in Foreign Language Classrooms:
                           Possibilities   and Challenges

Characteristics of Weblogs

          1. Weblogs vs. other Asynchronous Web-based Communication Tools

          Weblogs share some similar features with other asynchronous communicative application such as email, discussion forums, and web pages. Weblogs can be view by anyone on the web and weblogs are also different that they are individually or group owned. Weblogs can easily include hyperlinks, images and video clips while the forum mainly consists of plan texts or attached files.

          2. Unique Features of Weblogs

          Weblogs typically share the following features:

       Individual ownership

       Updates displayed in reverse chronological order.

       Archival of postings

These unique features of weblogs have various characteristics that attract language educators and learners.

       Relevance

       Accessibility

       Interactivity

       Interest

With these characteristics, weblogs not only facilitate exchanging information and expanding communication but also provide learners with possibilities to enhance their language learning.

Using Weblogs in Foreign Language Classrooms

          1. Possibilities and challenges of Tutor Weblogs

          A tutor weblogs can have possible three functions. First, it can function as a space through which a teacher provide learners with course related information. Second, it can function as a platform to help learners explore the Web resources in a guided manner. Third, weblogs can used to allow learners to express their idea and opinions.

          2. Possibilities and challenges of Learner Weblogs

          In this type of class, learners have a stronger purpose to write due to the existence of a real audience. Learners in this situation tend to be more concerned about writing more correctly

          3. Possibilities and challenges of Class Weblogs

          Class weblog can be best used as a collaborative discussion space, an extra-curricular extension of the classroom, encouraging students to reflect more in depth on the topics deals with in class.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Weblogs

          Weblogs are asserted to have several significant advantages for learning foreign languages.

       Weblogs provide an authentic learning environment for real communication.

       Weblogs function as online learning logs where learners record their learning experience.

       Weblogs enable learners to create social networks and learning communities where they can interact and communicate their opinions and ideas.

Various studies have reported positive effects of using weblogs on the development of learner’s writing skills. Using weblogs in foreign language classrooms:

       Enhances reading comprehension, improves students’ writing skills and abilities.

       Develops writing and learning strategies.

       Has a positive impact on the content and increases the amount of writing of learners.

       Make students pay close attention to the formal aspects of writing.

       The opportunity to write freely without being judge for their grammatical mistakes.

       Develops ideas and provide feedback for the authors.

       Enhances student analytical and critical thinking skills.

       Increases student motivation in reading and writing skills.

It is difficult to keep students’ interesting in blog-based task. If learners are not encouraged, blogs can quickly be forgotten. In order for weblog to work best, teachers guided learners to from the habit of using them.

       Teachers should respond to students’ posting quickly.

       Students should be actively encouraged to read and respond to their peers.

       Writing to blog could be required as part of the class assessment.

Using Corpus Analysis Software to Analyse Specialised Texts

Using Corpus Analysis Software to Analyse Specialised Texts

  
                              

   What is a corpus?

A corpus is a collection of texts of written (or spoken) language presented in electronic form. It provides the evidence of how language is used in real situations, from which lexicographers can write accurate and meaningful dictionary entries.

Using the corpus enables lexicographers to examine a word in detail by looking at all the different contexts in which it occurs. Below is a typical way of viewing the results of a search of the corpus, using a display format called KWIC (or ‘key word in context’)

The corpus contains over 2.5 billion words of real 21^st-century English; this is the largest lexical corpus in the world. It is not only size that matters, though: it is the size of the corpus coupled with the careful selection and development of its contents which means that it is a resource unlike any other in the world. Moreover, because the corpus is a collection of texts, there are not two billion different words: the humble word ‘the’, the commonest in the written language, accounts for almost 100 million of all the words in the corpus!

Keeping track of our language

Meanings of words and phrases change, and so do spellings, despite the existence of ‘standard’ or ‘correct’ spelling. A strength of the corpus is that it contains not only published works in which the text has been edited (and made to conform to standard spellings and grammar) but also unpublished and unedited writing like emails and blogs. Some of the most inventive uses and deliberate exploitations of language (as well as genuine mistakes) start out in this kind of informal and unselfconscious language, so tracking them is an essential part of tracking the language as a whole.

 

Sources of language corpora

Subscribe to a large corpus provider such as the British National 

Corpus (BNC).

Use web concordancing.

Compile own corpora and analyze data using analysis software

Antconc (for monolingual corpus)

Wordsmith (for monolingual corpus)

Paraconc (for multilingual corpus

 Designing a specialized corpus

           Corpus size

 There are no fixed ruled; depending on research purposes, availability of data and time.

Large, general corpora may be less useful than small, focused corpora if searches are made on context-specific terms.

There are limitations of ‘too small’ corpora e.g. not enough concepts, terms, or patterns under investigation.

It is preferable to create a ‘monitor’ or ‘open’ corpus because specialized words/usage are dynamic.
Text extracts vs. full texts

Depends on the aim of corpus compilation.

Whole text offers more coverage because words or terms to be looked at may be randomly distributed throughout the text.Specific sections may be helpful if we are looking for words or phrase under particular content areas or want to create purposeful sub-corpora.Number of texts

  Choices can be made between collect few texts of large size or a number of texts with smaller sizes.

Choices can also be made between selecting texts written by one or two key writers or sources, or texts retrieved from different sources or written by different authors.

Depends on your research focus e.g. to study overall language use or to study idiosyncrasy or linguistic choices preferred by particular writers.

Subject and text type

  Should mainly focus on the specialized text under investigation, although this is less clear-cut in multidisciplinary subjects.

Texts may come from different subject if the research focus is on the study of particular language features rather than term extraction.

Text types within a specialized subject field may vary from‘expert-to-expert’ texts to ‘expert-to-non-expert’ texts, or in other words, from technical to popular texts.
Other considerations

Authorship: Texts written by experts in a field tend to present more reliable and authentic examples of specialized language.

Language: Specialized texts can be stored and retrieved in the form of monolingual, comparable, or parallel corpora.

Publication date: Texts should come from recent publications unless queries are made in relation to particular periods of time.

    

      Getting started with Antconc

       Download the latest version of Antconc watch YouTube tutorials from 

 

 

                                   

  

           1.Run the program.      

               2. Open Files (browse and select targeted files) or Open Dir (to select targeted folders)      

                3.Choose the function.     

                4.Clear All Tools and Files before selecting opening new files.      

                5. Save Output to Text File to save output e.g.concordance lines.

The Use of Multimedia in English Teaching

The Use of Multimedia in English Teaching

The Definition of Multimedia

         Multimedia is the exciting combination of computer hardware and software that allows you to integrate video, animation, audio, graphics, and test resources to develop effective presentations on an affordable desktop computer.
         Multimedia is the use of a computer to present and combine text, graphics, audio, and video with links and tools that let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate. This definition contains four components essential to multimedia. First, there must be a computer to coordinate what you see and hear, and to interact with. Second, there must be links that connect the information. Third, there must be navigational tools that let you traverse the web of connected information. Finally, because multimedia is not a spectator sport, there must be ways for you to gather, process, and communicate your own information and ideas.
   
                                        

Components of Multimedia

          Multimedia is composed of text, graphics, animation, sound, and video.

      Text : It is fundamental element in all multimedia application, so teacher can use different font size, color, and style to present information for emphasize a certain word or phrase.

          Graphics : Graphics plays a very important role in language teaching process because it can stimulate interesting and motivation, improve understanding ability of language that refers to images and pictures, such as chart, diagram, and photograph, which contain no movement.

          Animation : Animation is the rapid display of sequence of image of 2D or 3D artwork. Assisted by the use of animation, teacher can highlight key knowledge points and heighten students' motivation.

     Sound : It can use more vivid and fruitful sound to help students’ English learning .

        Video : It is the visible part of a television transmission and broadcasts visual image of stationary or moving objects. Compared with animation, video can offer more vivid information. But it will consume more storage space than animation.

The Setting of Multimedia Classroom

         1.MPC : multimedia personal computer

         2.VCD/DVD player : video compound disk/digital video disk

         3.Amplifier and Hi-Fi acoustic system

         4.Overhead/slide projector

         5.Screen/curtain

         6.Projecting apparatus

         7.The Internet access

         8.Cassette tape recorder
               9.Camera recorder

The Current Status of Multimedia Teaching Method in College English Teaching

         College English Teaching is to set up a harmonious and high-effective teaching atmosphere make students take

part in the practice developing the students’ English intercommunicative ability. The answer

is not the grammar, nor the word differentiation, but the real. The interaction and

intelligence of the multimedia courseware become good medicine for mute English

students.

The Multimedia Teaching

To using multimedia in classroom, there is both advantage and disadvantage. So, teacher should their students when they find the problems. Those are as followings:
Advantages 

   - Arousing the students' interest.

   - Improving students' self-learning ability.

   - Improving students' innovative ability.

   - Cultivating students' communication skills.

   - Increasing classroom capacity.

Strategies for Using Multimedia

Combining Modern Teaching Methods With Traditional Teaching Methods

     Teachers should combine their strong points with modern teaching methods, which not only raise classroom teaching quality and efficiency, but also improve teaching and learning environment between teachers and students.

Viewing Multimedia as the Assistance to Teaching

   Application of multimedia technology aims to improve teaching, but teaching is not intended for multimedia. There is no doubt that teaching needs multimedia, but using multimedia, but using multimedia does not mean enhancing teaching efficiency.Multimedia can only be used as a supplement to classroom English teaching.

Building the Ideal Relationship Between Teachers and Students.

Strengthening Teachers Training.

   Multimedia assisted English teaching requires teachers with multimedia computer operating experience.

The Principles of Multimedia-Assisted Teaching.

   1.Scientific principle. Namely, courseware design cannot appear any errors.

   2.Subsidiary principle. It is only a supplementary means, and does not substitute for the role of people.

   3.Interactivity principle. More interactivity between teachers and students, students and multimedia, more effective results we will have.

   4.Combination principle. Combine the advantages of modern teaching and the traditional teaching organically. 

                                                    

Acronyms Exercise

Directions: Find words or phrases standing for the following acronyms with short descriptions. 

IT stands for information technology.
It refers to anything related to computing technology,
such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet, or the people that work with these technologies. We live in the"information age," information technology has become a part of our everyday lives. That means the term "IT," already highly overused, is here to stay. 

 

ICT stands for Information Communications Technology.
ICT refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. It is similar to informantion technology (IT), but focuses primarily on communication technologies. This includes the internet, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication mediums.
 

CAI stands for computer-assisted instruction or computer-aided instruction. CAI is a teaching process that uses a computer in the presentation of instructional materials, often in a way that requires the student to interact with it. CAI; instructional activities that use a computer as the primary vehicle for teaching content or processes rather than one-to-one interaction with a student. 

 

CALL stands for computer assisted language learning.
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is often perceived, somewhat narrowly, as an approach to language teaching and learning in which the computer is used as an aid to the presentation, reinforcement and assessment of material to be learned, usually including a substantial interactive element. 

WBI stands for Web based instruction. WBI is a web-based, web-based instructional program that offers multidimensional multimedia lessons in all subjects or it just offers some information for teaching purposes. Also take advantage of the features Communication in the Internet, such as E-mail and chat with text and audio, is used to achieve efficiency.

CBI stands for Computer Based Instruction. CBI is the use of computers as the basis for lessons. Such learning may take place at an educational institution, a libraly, a workplace, or the home. Computer resources help at any educational level to better convey information, and allows students to proceed at a learning rate they are comfortable with.These methods usually make extensive use of graphics, and often allow one-click access to the Internet for yet more information. 

CMC stands for Computer Mediated Communication. CMC is a process in which human data interaction occurs through one or more networked telecommunication systems.  A CMC interaction occurs through various types of networking technology and software, including email, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), instant messaging (IM), Usenet and mailing list servers. 

CMC features include conversation record ability, formal communication, and user identity anonymity, depending on software type -such as IM. However, CMC user statement interpretation may be difficult due to the absence of verbal communication. 

TELL stands for Teaching English Language Learners.It is the English teaching for  English learners by bilingual education and expertise, then check out the best teaching strategies, supporting the development of the knowledge of students who are learning English as a second language. You will learn how to create a student's language and background experience and how to create a classroom environment that promotes student’s learning. 

MUD stands for Multiple User Dialogue. MUD is a computer program that users can visit and explore. Each user takes control of a person's computer character. You can walk around chatting with other characters, explore dangerous monsters, solve puzzles, and even create your very own room. Description and Item You can still get lost or confused if you jump right in to make sure to read this document before you start.

MOO stands for MUD Object Oriented. MOO refers to the system of communication that is Synchronous users can interact with each other by typing the text. Choose a room or place to talk. The conversation must be in a place called the same room. 

reference://techterms.com/definition/it

reference: http://senarak.tripod.com/mudmoo.html

reference: http://www.dictionaryofengineering.com/definition/computer-based-instruction.html
reference:  www.techopedia.com/definition/392/computer-mediated-communication-cmc
reference:  http://nootaa.blogspot.com/2012/08/acronyms-related-to-computer-technology.html

https://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/61

 Directions: Describe the following terms.
Synchronous Tools

If using the “same time, different place” model of communication, some common barriers to implementation of synchronous tools are cost and bandwidth—not only cost and bandwidth on your end, as the individual teacher or the institution, but also to the students. This is especially true with conferencing systems; video/web conferencing requires equipment to deliver but also to receive. Although the benefits of real-time video conferencing are clear—it’s as near to a physical classroom environment as you can get—the software, hardware, and bandwidth necessary on both sides can be more cost-prohibitive than actually physically attending a class.

Some learning management systems/e-learning systems/virtual learning environments have integrated synchronous tools within the delivery platform—here I’m thinking specifically about Blackboard’s integrated chat and whiteboard features. Although there are still software, hardware, and bandwidth requirements for these tools, the requirements are likely not as cost-prohibitive as those required for video conferencing.

But when thinking about setting up synchronous discussion, don’t discount the basic, free, “old school” group instant messaging platform, ICQ.

Asynchronous Tools

But when it comes to virtual communication in support of our classes, asynchronous communication is by far the more popular model if for no other reason than the barriers to implementation tend to be much lower many of these tools are free and require minimal hardware and software. The drawbacks of asynchronous tools are that they are by nature less timely and efficient—they are asynchronous, after all. However, planned excursions with asynchronous tools can turn into synchronous events. In other words, if students and instructors all happen to be logged in to a discussion board, conversation can happen in near-real time.

Common examples of “different time, different place” tools include:

• Discussion boards: whether integrated into your online learning environment or not (such as Google Groups), well-managed discussion board can produce incredibly rich conversations about the topics at hand.
• Blogs: my personal favorite, as not only are the students discussing with one another (and the instructor), but they’re learning something about writing for a wider audience who may or may not be listening in. The open nature of blogs also allows for communication between students in other classes at other institutions who are studying the same topics. You might have to make “comment on blogs” count for a grade in order for some students to do it, but such is the nature of the beast—those students probably wouldn’t talk in class, either.
• Social Networking Sites: Facebook and Twitter can play important roles in your asynchronous communications strategy. Facebook pages for a class can be the destination for up-to-date information about the course, without your students having to friend you (or even one another). Twitter, and Twitter lists, can be useful sites of asynchronous discussion, although not in the threaded format that one is used to seeing in a discussion board setting.
• E-mail/Listservs: Some people consider mailing lists to be quaint relics of a previous technological age, but it’s hard to argue with the fact that they still work: an e-mail based discussion list does afford one the ability to carry on threaded discussions in a private environment, yet outside the confines of a managed system (for discussion boards). In fact, Google Groups (referenced above) is a threaded discussion board that can also take place via e-mail, putting a different twist on the typical concept of the listserv.